Live Review: Indigo Girls, Friday, July 24 @ The Zoo

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Where do the animals go at night? If they were around on Thursday, they weren't interested in acoustic empresses Indigo Girls Friday night, who played a hits-ridden set before a large and obedient outdoor crowd.

And like the disciples of Dave Matthews or the dire hard followers of a strange sport like handball, Indigo Girls Nation is overwhelmingly sizable, unwavering and packed with pride. You can't help wondering where these people are normally, and how they can mobilize in an instant with calculated precision. Credit to Indigo Girls' lasting legacy.

But the crowd often sang louder than Amy and Emily, burying their crisp, communal inflection in a vat of churchy, off-key humming. Perhaps that's the experience. After all, it's the zoo. Only there could I glance from a rousing version of “Closer To Fine” to an indifferent elephant across the amphitheater, stuffing its face with grass.

There is no denying the spell that the Indigo Girls cast. Everything they touch turns to infectious, half-country pop songs that pierce the skull. And though the music has a way of all merging into one congealed concert-long song, it was refreshing to hear some new material from the Girls. Poseidon And The Bitter Bug will be the Georgians' twelfth record, and it's dotted with shiny tracks. Best of the album (and the night's show) was “Sugar Tongue,” a bluesy, downtrodden song that sways like a feather in a crosswind.

The addition of Julie Wolf on keyboards and accordion boosted the band, injecting added authenticity and rustic sound. Trained professionals for decades now, IG breezed through their set, stopping now and again to say the obvious about the weather, but sticking mostly to their formula of feel-good numbers.